


Renter's Insurance

by bluspirits



Series: Defensive Maneuvers [1]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Jessica Jones (TV)
Genre: Depression, Friendship, Gen, Panic Attacks, Post-Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 07:06:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7304452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluspirits/pseuds/bluspirits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the closure of Nelson and Murdock, Matt rents out the empty office space in order to keep things going. </p>
<p>All things considered, the people of Alias Investigations are pretty good office mates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Renter's Insurance

**Author's Note:**

> So, I swear I saw a prompt on the kinkmeme for this, but I cannot for the life of me find it again. There's a good chance I imagined it. 
> 
> I'm just going to ask that you suspend disbelief in terms of the property stuff. Sorry. I'm not an expert on this. Let's pretend Matt owns the office and thus can rent it out, and it's bills that he needs the rental money for. Or this is some vaguely shady deal in which he rents out the space in order to pay his own rent. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Matt stands off to the side in the door of his office while two strangers move around what’s left of Foggy and Karen’s things. 

With his current lack of work ethic and paying clients, he'd been forced to rent out the other side of his office to keep the place. He had seriously considered just letting it all go, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to get rid of the place. And so he had wound up sharing office space with Alias Investigations. 

The two employees of Alias Investigations, and Matt’s new office mates, Jessica Jones and Malcolm Ducasse, are arguing over where to put the boxes they’ve brought with them. Jessica doesn’t think they need to unpack them, while Malcolm does. Matt just wishes they’d make a decision already. 

“Where would we even put all the files?” Jessica asks loudly. They seem like they’ve forgotten he’s here. He wishes he could forget they were here. 

“In the desks, in filing cabinets. There are filing cabinets here. We can actually file things now.” Malcolm answers. 

“I filed things before.” 

“We can file things like professionals now.” Malcolm corrects. 

“Congratulations. Have fun with that.” Jessica says, and steps back from the boxes, making it clear that she won’t be filing anything right now. Malcolm sighs loudly. 

“Malcolm said we needed better office space than my apartment. I think it’s bullshit, but he’s the people person.” Jessica says to him after a minute, with the tone of someone who doesn’t want to be here and doesn’t care if you know. He thinks she’s only explaining this because she doesn’t want to unpack anything else. He’s not offended by her lack of interest. He doesn’t really want to have a conversation either. 

“Okay, any chance you could move this desk?” Malcolm says from where he’s still setting things up across the room, and Matt isn’t sure who he’s talking to until Jessica moves. She walks to the other side of the table, puts a hand under it and lifts it up like it weighs nothing. Huh. So he’s not the only one here with superpowers. 

“Where do you want it?” she asks. 

“About half a foot forward,” he turns to Matt. “Is that okay?” 

“Sure.” Matt says with a nod. He doesn’t care what they do with the furniture. He just doesn’t care in general. He’s sure that this should hurt more, but he just feels empty. 

“Really?” Jessica asks Malcolm. “You couldn’t just push it?” 

“I don’t want to scratch the floors. They’re not ours,” Malcolm answers, and Jessica sighs and drops the table, half a foot away from where it started. It’s thoughtful of Malcolm, but Matt honestly does not give a shit what they do to the floors. He doesn’t give a shit about anything these days, really.

“Do you mind if we put our window sign in the door?” Malcolm asks when the table is in place. He’s holding a large panel of what Matt assumes is glass. “I get it if that’s not okay, it’s your office first,” he says it’s okay, but Matt can tell he really wants to put the sign in. And it sounds like Jessica does to. 

“No, it’s fine.” He’s not going to stop them from putting up their sign. He remembers how good that feels. And it’s not like he’s all that invested in keeping the business afloat these days. His work mostly involves one or two clients who he’s pretty sure were referred to him by Foggy, and figuring out who Daredevil should be punching next. Not having his name on the door is not a huge worry. 

“Thanks,” Malcolm says, sounding very grateful. Must be emotional significance to the sign. Matt nods absently. 

“You can set your stuff up however you want, don’t worry about it,” he says, and retreats back into his office as quickly as he can while still coming across as casual. Hopefully he can get away with interacting with them as little as possible. 

\---

It turns out they’re good office mates. Malcolm is a nice and friendly person who is happy to serve as Matt’s secretary if anyone ever comes to visit him (no one really does). Jessica doesn’t bother him, barely talks to him. Occasionally there’ll be yelling from her office, and he’s heard her punch a client in there once or twice, but other than that, there’s nothing too disruptive or intrusive about either of them. 

They don’t feel like a replacement in any way. Matt had felt vaguely grateful when he met Jessica and found she was nothing at all like Foggy or Karen. She and Malcolm make the place feel totally different, which is good. 

Neither of them seem to be interested in close friendship. Malcolm is polite and friendly, but mostly backs off when he sees Matt isn't interested. Jessica is abrasive and seems to ignore him most of the time. He doesn’t have to worry about them hating him, because they don’t really care to begin with. That’s good. 

He doesn’t have to worry about them caring about his secrets, or being mad about his lies. He had thought working with a detective might be risky, but Jessica isn’t really interested in what he’s doing. She doesn’t look at him funny when he comes in with a limp and a black eye. Doesn’t worry over what he’s doing and where he’s going. In fact, according to Malcolm, she looks the same fairly often. 

So it’s good. It’s not the same, but still, good. 

\---

They’ve been pretty separate for sharing a small office until they meet out of their regularly scheduled interactions.

It’s one in the morning when he hears Jessica enter the building. In the month or so they’ve been sharing office space, he’s picked up on her weird hours. She’ll be in and out late at night, going to track people and take pictures of them. It doesn’t bother him. He keeps weird hours too sometimes, so it works out fine. It’s not like she’s keeping him up. 

He listens to her make her way up to the office and pull the door open. He makes no attempt to move from his position cross-legged on top of his desk (because it is his office and it is one a.m, and he can do what he wants). He doesn’t try to turn on the lights either. He’s been staying around the office more and more lately, and he’s not sure why. But he’s made the decision to stay at the office all night when he’s not out fighting a couple of times recently. So it’s not surprising to him that he would encounter Jessica at some point. It might be a little surprising for her, though. 

Jessica enters the office and doesn’t seem to have noticed him as she goes straight for Malcolm’s desk. 

“Fuck!” she shouts in surprise when she makes it to the desk, probably having spotted him, and Matt flinches, because she is very loud, especially to him, and because it is one in the morning. He is definitely awake now. 

He rubs at his forehead. A headache had already been building, the product of ignoring all the screams he can hear from the rest of the city for the past few hours instead of going out, and after that yell, it had grown a whole lot. 

“Shit.” Jessica says, slightly quieter this time. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Fine. You startled me, sitting alone there in the dark. What are you even doing here?” 

“Couldn’t sleep.” he answers simply, and it’s not even a lie. He can’t sleep most of the time. And for some reason, he also can’t seem to make himself go and patrol tonight. He just can’t, and he hates it. “What are _you _doing here?” he asks back.__

__“Left my camera here.” she says and holds something up, probably said camera. Matt nods._ _

__“You never mention this to anyone.” she says as she leaves, pointing a finger at him, tone making it very clear bad things will happen to him if he does._ _

__“Mention what?” he says with a smile. He thinks she smiles back on her way out._ _

__\--_ _

__Jessica pokes her head in his office door around six in the afternoon. Malcolm has already left for the night, and she’s just come back from something. “Hey. Murdock. What do you know about first aid?” she sounds like the words have been forced out of her. Reluctant to ask for help. He knows that feeling._ _

__“What?” he knows plenty, but not as the practitioner, which is the way he thinks this is going._ _

__“I fell out a window. Got some cuts on my back. Need someone to tape them up.” she explains, a little shortly, like he should have guessed._ _

__“Are you sure you don’t want to call Malcolm? Or someone with working eyes?” he asks, but he’s standing from his desk._ _

__“He's already annoyed with me for bruising my ribs the other day. Besides, it’s like two cuts.”_ _

__“Okay. I’ll just poke around your back until I find a hole.” Is this how Claire felt whenever he called her? No, she was probably more annoyed. This is the first time Jessica has asked for help and probably the last. He had called Claire every few days. He tries to focus back on Jessica before he gets caught back up in the endless loop of ‘I’m the worst, look how many lives I’ve ruined.’_ _

__“I believe in you, or whatever.” Jessica says with a wave, done with conversation now that he’s agreed to help._ _

__“You really sure you want me doing this?” he asks again as he walks over. There’s a nearly overwhelming scent of blood coming from her back, and he tastes copper as he moves closer._ _

__“I’m pretty committed to Malcolm and Trish not finding out about this.” she turns her back to him and pulls off her tank top. “So if you can keep a secret, I’m sure.”_ _

__“I can keep a secret.” or several._ _

__Jessica snorts a little at this, and he isn’t sure if it's because she knows his secrets and thinks he’s shit at keeping them or if it’s because she doubts he has any._ _

__He reaches out and runs his hand down her back until he encounters a cut. She twitches a bit and her heartbeat increases for a second, but other than that, she doesn’t show the pain. He keeps his one now bloody hand on the injury so he won’t lose track of it and reaches over her shoulder with the other. She places the bandages in his hand. He presses the gauze pad to the cut and tapes it down._ _

__“Is there any glass in these?” he asks, a little late, now that he’s already taped it up. He can’t sense any, but he could be missing it._ _

__“No, I don’t think so. There’s another one to your left and down a bit,” she answers, directing him to the next cut._ _

__He moves his hand in the direction she mentioned and finds another cut. He covers it up._ _

__“How many of these are there?”_ _

__“Three or four,” she shrugs. “Move a couple inches up.”_ _

__He follows her instructions, bandaging the rest of the cuts. Jessica straightens up and puts her shirt back on, wincing at how the movement pulls at her cuts._ _

__“Thanks,” she says, and they stand there in awkward silence for a few seconds._ _

__“Anytime,” Matt finally responds._ _

__“Anytime?” she repeats incredulously, rolling her shoulders._ _

__“It’s not like I have anything better to do,” he shrugs._ _

__“Yeah, I noticed.”_ _

__“Hey,” he says, without any real venom._ _

__“You just sit around all day. I’m not even sure you do any lawyer work,” she snaps back, also good-natured._ _

__“And you just hang around my office and drink.”_ _

__He was worried she might be offended, but she laughs a little. “It’s my office too. I’m pretty sure it’s my money keeping the lights on.”_ _

__“Probably. But it’s not like I need them.”_ _

__Jessica smiles and there’s a comfortable break in conversation before she turns to leave._ _

__“See you tomorrow, Murdock.”_ _

__\--_ _

__“Trish, this is Matt Murdock. He’s a lawyer, we share the office with him.” Malcolm says to the woman who’s just walked in, and who has Jessica seeming happier than he’s ever seen her. “Matt, this is Trish, Jess’s best friend.”_ _

__“Nice to meet you,” he says._ _

__“Nice to meet you too,” she answers as she shakes his hand. She’s wearing nice clothes and expensive perfume. She’s different than Jessica with her leather jacket and ancient jeans. But she still fits in with Jessica and Malcolm perfectly._ _

__He stands there, smiling politely, wanting to leave, because he’s not close to them, it’s awkward, and seeing them together kind of hurts for some reason._ _

__They remind him of something. It buzzes around his head, their easy laughter nagging at some memory. He knows what their interaction reminds him of, but he doesn’t really want to think about it._ _

__Jessica smiles at something Trish says, and Malcolm laughs._ _

__He smiles, slightly forced, makes an excuse up then turns around, heads back into his office and closes the door._ _

__He can hear the three of them laughing in the other room. It’s too loud, distracting. He wants to tell them to shut up. That this won’t last, that they’ll leave each other, that this will be ruined. He wants to shout. He wants to cry._ _

__He stays silent and tries to ignore their laughter, but he can’t quite tune it out._ _

__\--_ _

__Jessica is leaning against the wall outside her office when he walks in one afternoon. Her heart rate is up, far too fast, and her breathing is harsh and quick._ _

__“Birch street. Higgins drive. Cobalt lane,” she whispers to herself, not intending him to hear, or even aware that he is in the room._ _

__She’s in a cold sweat, shaking slightly. Probably having a panic attack._ _

__He moves a few steps closer to her, making his footfalls heavier to let her know he’s here._ _

__She turns and notices him, and while she doesn’t say anything, her posture indicates a mixture of embarrassment and anger through the panic._ _

__“Jessica, you have to breathe, slowly,” he says gently. He’s pretty sure she’d curse him out right now if she wasn’t hyperventilating. Maybe a ‘What the fuck do you think I’m doing?’ or something like that._ _

__“Can I touch you?” he reaches out slightly, hand hovering away from her._ _

__She shakes her head, quickly, a strong no. He nods and takes a small step back._ _

__She’s calming down slowly, heartbeat and breathing beginning to steady out. He waits near her, a little unsure of whether he should stay or go._ _

__“Sorry,” he says softly a few minutes after everything has evened out._ _

__She turns to look at him. “What?” it’s one part a ‘why are you asking?’ and another part a ‘don’t you dare pity me’._ _

__“Panic attacks are shitty. I’m sorry you have to deal with that.” he shrugs and leans against the wall next to her. She doesn’t say anything, but doesn’t seem to take his statement as too pitying._ _

__“What gets you?” she asks after a long silence._ _

__“Um. Gunshots did, for a while.” when he was much younger. By now he’s managed to train himself out of that response, a painful process. His panic attacks now don’t really seem to to have a direct cause. Stress, maybe._ _

__He doesn’t ask her for the reason behind her panic attack. That’s private, if she wanted him to know, she’d tell him without prompting._ _

__“How’d you get them to go away?”_ _

__Exposure therapy. Hearing your triggers every day is a pretty good way to adjust and become used to them. But he doesn’t say this. Just shrugs. It’s not a method he’d recommend. And he still has them, just not at gunshots anymore._ _

__“I didn’t, really.”_ _

__Jessica nods. “Yeah.” she sounds like this is exactly the answer she expected, and he’s sorry he can’t give her something better. She sighs and crosses her arms._ _

__He thinks that maybe she wants to be alone, or at least not with the random guy she kind of works with. He gives her a small smile and remembers he has Malcolm’s number. “I can call-”_ _

__She cuts him off. “No.”_ _

__“Okay.” he nods and starts to walk over to his office. “Hope you feel better,” he says as he closes the door._ _

__She nods. “Me too.”_ _

__\--_ _

__“You know, talking helps.” Jessica says, out of nowhere, standing in the doorway to his office, “Or so they tell me.”_ _

__Matt isn’t sure where this is coming from or where it’s going, but it seems like the lead in to an emotional conversation, which he was not expecting from Jessica._ _

__“I mean, I know it’s hard and it feels like shit, but it does help. A little. You should talk to someone. Malcolm’s a good listener,” she forces all this out, and while she sounds uncomfortable saying all this, he thinks she’s doing it willingly, and really means it. Which is nice, really nice. But not what he wanted. (she’s not supposed to care about him)._ _

__“Why-” he stumbles on his words. “I don’t need to talk to anyone. Why would you think I need to talk to someone?” his denial comes out too fast, and the last question too desperate. He’s pretty much just given himself away._ _

__“You just always look-” Jessica pauses and takes a deep breath, searching for the word. She doesn’t find it, but Matt thinks he gets the idea. “I know that look.”_ _

__“Ugh, this is hard.” she sighs. “I know we’re not that close, but I’m gifting you Malcolm. You should talk to him. If you want.”_ _

__“I’m fine. I’m fine.” he repeats like he has to convince himself. But he’s obviously failed to convince Jessica._ _

__“Yeah, okay. I’m not going to force you into anything, but,” she stops and shakes her head. “Yeah. This isn’t my thing, which should tell you how bad you seem.”_ _

__“I. I’m-” he doesn’t know what to say, because he’s not okay, but he doesn't think it really matters. He thought he hid it pretty well. Apparently not._ _

__“Just think about it.” she waves a hand at him. He sinks deeper into his chair and listens to her leave. He can tell she’s still worried, but he doesn’t know why._ _

__He feels a little bad, but he’s probably not going to talk to anyone. He couldn’t do it even when there were people to talk to. He’ll punch someone really hard tonight, that usually helps._ _

__\--_ _

__Jessica is leaning against Malcolm’s desk, drinking silently. It’s night now, has just gotten dark, and Matt should be leaving soon to patrol (every minute he waits is another person hurt) but instead he walks over to her, and doesn’t break the comfortable silence. She hands him the bottle, and he takes a long drink, standing next to her against the table._ _

__“People,” she says, managing to convey a lifetime’s worth of annoyance in the one word._ _

__He hums in agreement and hands the bottle back._ _

__They drink in silence, passing the bottle back and forth for the next half an hour. It’s nice. Sure, he’s going to hate himself later for not doing his job, but it’s nice now._ _

__Being around Jessica is comfortable, easy. She can take care of herself, and she isn’t interested in any kind of close friendship or attachment either, which is good. Less to lose when he fucks it up and she inevitably leaves._ _

__It feels like they understand each other. Kindred spirits or something._ _

__He refuses to let himself really think about it, because he knows it won’t happen, but he hopes she sticks around._ _

__\--_ _

__“Get over here, Murdock!” Jessica shouts from across the office. It’s the middle of a day, and Matt has no idea why she would want him to get in her office, he can even hear her meeting with a client now, but he walks over._ _

__“I was just explaining our business plan to this nice woman,” she says when he enters the room. He’s immediately confused, because they don’t have a business plan together, but Jessica clearly has a plan or something, so he remains silent and doesn’t ask her what the hell she’s talking about._ _

__He smiles at the client sitting in the chair across from her desk and tries to look like he knows what’s happening._ _

__Jessica steeples her fingers and leans forward. “So here’s how it works: I’m private detective, and he’s a lawyer. I can get proof your husband is cheating, and he can draw up the divorce papers right there. It’s the perfect partnership. And we work cheap.”_ _

__Matt just nods, even though he hadn’t been given any warning that he was becoming a divorce lawyer. But he wasn’t going to object right there. It was smart, got both of them business. And he liked the sound of the word partnership. He was going to make sure he didn’t ruin it this time. He would do better._ _


End file.
